689 research outputs found
Long XMM observation of the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS13224-3809: rapid variability, high spin and a soft lag
Results are presented from a 500ks long XMM-Newton observation of the
Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy IRAS13224-3809. The source is rapidly variable on
timescales down to a few 100s. The spectrum shows strong broad Fe-K and L
emission features which are interpreted as arising from reflection from the
inner parts of an accretion disc around a rapidly spinning black hole. Assuming
a power-law emissivity for the reflected flux and that the innermost radius
corresponds to the innermost stable circular orbit, the black hole spin is
measured to be 0.988 with a statistical precision better than one per cent.
Systematic uncertainties are discussed. A soft X-ray lag of 100s confirms this
scenario. The bulk of the power-law continuum source is located at a radius of
2-3 gravitational radii.Comment: 7 pages, 14 figures, submitted to MNRA
Atividade potencialmente alelopática do óleo essencial de Ocimum americanum.
Os óleos essenciais são reconhecidos pelas suas diversificadas ações biológicas. A biodiversidade amazônica é rica em espécies de plantas produtoras de óleos essenciais. Neste trabalho, objetivou-se caracterizar a atividade potencialmente alelopática do óleo essencial de Ocimum americanum (estoraque) e determinar seus efeitos sobre a germinação de sementes e o desenvolvimento de duas espécies de plantas daninhas. O óleo essencial foi testado em concentrações variando de 100 a 2.000 mg L-1, considerando seus efeitos sobre a germinação de sementes (25 ºC de temperatura constante e fotoperíodo de 12 horas) e o desenvolvimento da radícula e do hipocótilo (25 ºC de temperatura constante e fotoperíodo de 24 horas) das plantas daninhas malícia (Mimosa pudica) e mata-pasto (Senna obtusifolia). Fatores relacionados a concentração, especificidade das plantas receptoras e parâmetros analisados foram decisivos para os efeitos obtidos. A tendência geral foi de relação positiva entre concentração e efeito inibitório. Malícia foi mais sensível aos efeitos do que mata-pasto. Comparativamente, a germinação, seguida do desenvolvimento da radícula, foi afetada pelo óleo essencial em maior magnitude, ficando o desenvolvimento do hipocótilo como o de menor sensibilidade. Os efeitos observados podem ser atribuídos à presença, no óleo essencial, de monoterpenos, monoterpenos oxigenados, sesquiterpenos, alifáticos e fenilpropanoides, com destaque para os constituintes com atividade alelopática já comprovada, como o limoneno, a cânfora e o linalol
Hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy in liver transplant patients
The optimal treatment strategy for patients with symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy
(HOCM) and end-stage liver disease (ESLD) is not well defined. Although medical
management is the accepted first line treatment, patients who are unresponsive to medication
require further interventions. Since ESLD patients have a high operative risk for surgical
myomectomy, alcohol septal ablation (ASA) emerges as a good alternative in these cases. The
timing of ASA in relation to liver transplantation is still unclear. We report here on the first
case of an orthotopic liver transplant-recipient undergoing ASA and the second of a cirrhotic
patient requiring ASA as a bridge to liver transplantation. Both patients had a good clinical
outcome and we argue that ASA in HOCM patients should be driven by symptom onset, and
that in the asymptomatic patient it can be safely deferred until after liver transplantation.
(Cardiol J 2008; 15: 74-79
The safety of bivalirudin during elective percutaneous coronary interventions in heart transplant patients
Background: Bivalirudin has been shown to be safe and effective during percutaneous
coronary interventions (PCI) of native coronary arteries in the REPLACE 2 trial. The safety of
bivalirudin during PCIs in heart transplant patients is not known.
Methods: Heart transplant patients who had undergone PCI of de novo lesions and received
bivalirudin during the procedure were included in the study. Medical records were reviewed for
the occurrence of death, myocardial infarction, target vessel revascularization or major bleeding
up to 30 days after discharge. The results were compared with the REPLACE 2 trial and with
a control group of heart transplant recipients who received heparin during their procedures.
Results: There were 51 separate PCIs performed in 30 patients in the study group. The mean
age was 56 ± 12 years and 6 (20%) were women. The control group consisted of 24 patients
who had undergone 35 PCIs. There were no deaths, myocardial infarctions or target vessel
revascularization during the follow-up period in the study group. The combined endpoint of
death, myocardial infarctions, target vessel revascularization and major bleeding requiring
two or more units of packed red blood cells occurred in 2 (3.9%) patients compared to
275 (9.2%) patients in the REPLACE 2 trial (p = 0.195) and 5 (14.3%) in the control group (p = 0.115).
Conclusion: Bivalirudin is a safe antithrombotic medication to use during elective PCI in
heart transplant patients with cardiac allograft vasculopathy. (Cardiol J 2007; 14: 458-462
Observations of MCG-5-23-16 with Suzaku, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR: Disk tomography and Compton hump reverberation
MCG-5-23-16 is one of the first AGN where relativistic reverberation in the
iron K line originating in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole was
found, based on a short XMM-Newton observation. In this work, we present the
results from long X-ray observations using Suzaku, XMM-Newton and NuSTAR
designed to map the emission region using X-ray reverberation. A relativistic
iron line is detected in the lag spectra on three different time-scales,
allowing the emission from different regions around the black hole to be
separated. Using NuSTAR coverage of energies above 10 keV reveals a lag between
these energies and the primary continuum, which is detected for the first time
in an AGN. This lag is a result of the Compton reflection hump responding to
changes in the primary source in a manner similar to the response of the
relativistic iron K line.Comment: Accepted for Publication in Ap
NuSTAR and Suzaku X-ray Spectroscopy of NGC 4151: Evidence for Reflection from the Inner Accretion Disk
We present X-ray timing and spectral analyses of simultaneous 150 ks Nuclear
Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Suzaku X-ray observations of the
Seyfert 1.5 galaxy NGC 4151. We disentangle the continuum emission, absorption,
and reflection properties of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) by applying
inner accretion disk reflection and absorption-dominated models. With a
time-averaged spectral analysis, we find strong evidence for relativistic
reflection from the inner accretion disk. We find that relativistic emission
arises from a highly ionized inner accretion disk with a steep emissivity
profile, which suggests an intense, compact illuminating source. We find a
preliminary, near-maximal black hole spin a>0.9 accounting for statistical and
systematic modeling errors. We find a relatively moderate reflection fraction
with respect to predictions for the lamp post geometry, in which the
illuminating corona is modeled as a point source. Through a time-resolved
spectral analysis, we find that modest coronal and inner disk reflection flux
variation drives the spectral variability during the observations. We discuss
various physical scenarios for the inner disk reflection model, and we find
that a compact corona is consistent with the observed features.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Measuring Black Hole Spin using X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy
I review the current status of X-ray reflection (a.k.a. broad iron line)
based black hole spin measurements. This is a powerful technique that allows us
to measure robust black hole spins across the mass range, from the stellar-mass
black holes in X-ray binaries to the supermassive black holes in active
galactic nuclei. After describing the basic assumptions of this approach, I lay
out the detailed methodology focusing on "best practices" that have been found
necessary to obtain robust results. Reflecting my own biases, this review is
slanted towards a discussion of supermassive black hole (SMBH) spin in active
galactic nuclei (AGN). Pulling together all of the available XMM-Newton and
Suzaku results from the literature that satisfy objective quality control
criteria, it is clear that a large fraction of SMBHs are rapidly-spinning,
although there are tentative hints of a more slowly spinning population at high
(M>5*10^7Msun) and low (M<2*10^6Msun) mass. I also engage in a brief review of
the spins of stellar-mass black holes in X-ray binaries. In general,
reflection-based and continuum-fitting based spin measures are in agreement,
although there remain two objects (GROJ1655-40 and 4U1543-475) for which that
is not true. I end this review by discussing the exciting frontier of
relativistic reverberation, particularly the discovery of broad iron line
reverberation in XMM-Newton data for the Seyfert galaxies NGC4151, NGC7314 and
MCG-5-23-16. As well as confirming the basic paradigm of relativistic disk
reflection, this detection of reverberation demonstrates that future large-area
X-ray observatories such as LOFT will make tremendous progress in studies of
strong gravity using relativistic reverberation in AGN.Comment: 19 pages. To appear in proceedings of the ISSI-Bern workshop on "The
Physics of Accretion onto Black Holes" (8-12 Oct 2012). Revised version adds
a missing source to Table 1 and Fig.6 (IRAS13224-3809) and corrects the
referencing of the discovery of soft lags in 1H0707-495 (which were in fact
first reported in Fabian et al. 2009
A blurred reflection interpretation for the intermediate flux state in Mrk 335
As part of a long-term monitoring campaign of Mrk 335, deep XMM–Newton observations catch the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) in a complex, intermediate flux interval as the active galaxy is transiting from low to high flux. Other works on these same data examined the general behaviour of the NLS1 and the conditions of its warm absorber. The analysis presented here demonstrates the X-ray continuum and timing properties can be described in a self-consistent manner adopting a blurred reflection model without any need to invoke partial covering. The rapid spectral variability appears to be driven by changes in the shape of the primary emitter that is illuminating the inner accretion disc around a rapidly spinning black hole (a > 0.7). While light bending is certainly prominent, the rather constant emissivity profile and break radius obtained in our spectral fitting suggest that the blurring parameters do not change as would be expected if the primary source varies its distance from the disc. Instead changes could be intrinsic to the power-law component. One possibility is that material in an unresolved jet above the disc falls to combine with material at the base of the jet producing the changes in the primary emitter (spectral slope and flux) without changing its distance from the disc
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